MATT SORUM Drums His Way Into Digital Age Of Music - "It’s A New Paradigm"
February 5, 2018, 6 years ago
Forbes' Andrew Rossow recently spoke with drummer Matt Sorum, best known for his role with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, over the telephone.
Says Rossow: "To be honest, I didn’t get too heavy into classic rock until my freshman year of college, although I had already heard most of the music by then. Once I heard the roll of the drum by artists such as Sorum, it changed my perspective on what quality sounding music was. I saw this as a rare and unique opportunity to infiltrate the mind of a true artist whose ability to hear the beats, rhythms, and noise comes together to produce many of the hits that we’ve come to love today that have found its way into pop culture films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Interview With A Vampire.
"We may not be in paradise city anymore, but the genre still lives on, even if digitally altered. The platforms have evolved from vinyl to 8-track to cassette tapes to compact discs (CD), and lastly, to mp3. I asked Sorum what he thought about today's recording platforms and how music is distributed."
An excerpt from the interview follows:
Andrew Rossow: How has the emergence of digital streaming, digital downloads, and even online radio like Sirius XM, affected how you market yourself, your music, and genre?
Matt Sorum: "It’s a new paradigm for music. [As a kid], I started out buying vinyl and having this mystique of musicians, not knowing who they [were] and how to access them. You couldn’t look on their [social media] page[s]."
Rossow: So, was this a wake up call for Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver?
Sorum: "We were a little behind, watching bands like Linkin Park, who were digitally savy. It was a marketing component - you had to either jump on board and get with it, or be left behind as a bit of a dinosaur. [Post Guns N’ Roses], in the early 90’s, [we] still put out vinyl, cassettes, and then CD’s came out. When things started to go online with Velvet Revolver, I had suggested the band get up to speed with what [was] happening in the new world."
Read the complete interview at Forbes.com.
